Dave Prentis writes on the West Sussex school funding crisis

The funding crisis facing West Sussex schools has been highlighted by UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis on his blog.

Dave clearly describes the problems facing our local West Sussex schools in his online blog which goes well beyond our county to UNISON’s 1.3 million members across the UK.

If you work in a West Sussex school, or have children who go to one, you still have time to complete our local schools’ survey. The feedback from this is being used to support the schools-led campaign ‘Worth Less?’ providing more evidence to lobby government for a better deal.

Should schools not receive the extra £20m they need from next April, they are likely to face dramatic cutbacks:

  • Staff won’t be replaced when they leave;
  • Those who remain will see workloads increased;
  • Disruptive restructures and downgrading will be rushed through;
  • There will reduced learning support for children;
  • Class sizes will increase; and
  • Four day-a-week schools will cause
  • Increased pressure on parents.

The government has dismissed the campaign so far, stating that funding issues will be addressed in the new national funding formula, but that doesn’t start until 2018! It will still then take three years for schools to recover from current underfunding. Extra funds are needed now!

And all this of course at a time when the government can find £200m to spend on unnecessary grammar schools, as announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond in the Autumn Statement.